Author: Delia Owens
Plot: I finally got my hands on the book “Where the Crawdads sing”. The story revolves around a marsh girl “Kya”, whose battle for survival starts when she turns six. She lives in a shack on a marsh near a quiet town Barkley Cove on the North Carolina Coastal line. Domestic abuse in the house forces her mother, and later her siblings to leave the shack leaving Kya alone with her abusive father at a tender age of 6. After few days of feeble sunshine, things get gloomy when her drunkard father also abandons her at the age of ten.
Kya battles her loneliness and puts up a brave face when confronted with adversity. She grows up to be a beautiful maiden, men begin to take advantage of her. Scorned, humiliated and rejected by the town folks as the Marsh Girl, she is determined to make her identity in this world, which she eventually does, magnificently.
But troubles don’t seem to leave Kya when she gets caught up in a murder mystery. Everyone in the town suspects Kya and she has to face criticism and rejection, yet again, despite being an accomplished naturalist and an author.
There are two protagonists in this novel, Kya and the marsh itself. It took me a while to understand the setting and I struggled to get a clear picture of marsh in my head. I have never read a more vivid and beautiful description of a marsh before. By the end of the book, my head was filled with the inhabitants of the marsh, the birds, the shells and the different fauna which grows there. I understood the difference between a marsh and a swamp, how a lagoon opens up to a beach and how a beach narrows to a tunnel and how it opens up to the sea.
Then comes the heroine Kya. Her struggle for survival and her resilience is certainly commendable. But I did find her story a little unrealistic , she seems to have the right people walking in her life the right time. And considering that she was a Marsh girl who had been alone most of her life , some of her achievements seemed incredible .
Nevertheless, Survival stories are my favorite, and I am fortunate to read this story of the Marsh girl and her struggle against loneliness. This book is a brilliant piece of fiction. It is poetic, beautifully written. I am looking forward for the movie, which is supposed to be produced by Reese Witherspoon. I am looking forward to see Kya but more than that, the marsh. Don’t miss this book , it is a different experience all together.
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